READ BEFORE PURCHASE

[Johnny]

I played for about 5-6 hours on Xbox and I am seriously bummed to report that:

This game is missing:

-A skill for dialogue. So no specing into diplomacy/deciet/beguiling/etc

-Any crime system at all

-Any theft of any kind

-Any ability to interact with generic town NPCs and I mean ANY. No injuring them in any way, no dynamic quests, no response to anything you do at all NOTHING.

-Any dynamic NPC movement, all town NPCs stand in EXACTLY the same spot, forever. They are literally just non-interactive set dressing. No schedules, no immersion, no life no detail at all, might as well be animatronics at Disneyland.

-Good player dialogue. Like wow, there are genuine moments in the game where your ONLY choices are between the anguish of horridly written ERP, ex: "Are you sure about that? [Raise right eyebrow high with quizzical, vexed befuddlement]" or the soul crushingly embarrassing generic fantasy slop lines such as: "Scholar: I was looking for the brawn to my brains!" It frequently makes me want to curl into a ball and die.

-Any meaningful distinction between player origins aside from some overly archytyped flavor text that I almost never wanted to engage in.

-An option to silence companion NPCs that relentlessly bombard you with the most obvious, annoying and or boring statements you can imagine often spelling things out before you even have a chance of discovering or processing them, LOUDLY and FREQUENTLY regardless of context. You wanna soak in some environmental storytelling naturally? NOPE, Kai is going to bellow in your ear "THESE CORPSES WERE KING SO AND SO'S MEN ON THE JOURNEY TO X LOCATION." About to solve a puzzle or try to think for yourself at at all? NOPE Kai is going to pin you down and scream in your ear "THESE VINES CAN BE BURNED WITH A FIRE SPELL" before you even see them.

-Any ability to play without companions despite them being insanely obnoxious and typically not that engaging narratively.

-Any kind of internal logic at all: A friend starts a bar fight? Do you knock the people you're fighting unconscious? No. You incinerate them in front of everyone over a small verbal disagreement to not even the slightest reaction. "We're the good guys folks." The game is chalk full of these kinds of moments.

Avowed is missing nearly everything I would want or expect from an Obsidian RPG and its systems are sparsely competitive with that of TES IV Oblivion (2006). It's not """"wokeness"""" that makes this game bad. It's sheer mediocrity, laziness and under-delivery. I seriously don't think I have felt more let down by any other game and my expectations weren't even high from the preview footage.

[Johnny]

Originally posted by Pinhead Larry:

Originally posted by ShiggitySean:

While i disagree with basically everything here, you're free to your opinion. But theres some things that are just wrong. Almost every dialogue has speech checks, idk if you've noticed but thats those options with the stats next to them. Kinda hard to miss. And i'm not sure why there'd be an option for crime, stealing, or random murder in the town because, aside from the fact that you're sent as the direct envoy of the EMPEROR OF AEDYRA, the whole first part is about tensions in town, game would end if you started indiscriminately killing citizens lmao.

And the last one, while i suppose still an opinion, its weird that you have Fallout NV showcased, so i assume you like it, but you have an issue with the emotes as dialogue choices?? That's something that occurs a lot in FNV, and is arguably some of the most iconic dialogue moments.

Baldurs Gate 3 lets you kill EVERY SINGLE NPC AND COMPANION and it still accounts for different paths that let you beat the game.

We live in a post BG3 world now, and that's where the bar for an RPG is set.

Granted, this game was in development before BG3 released so we can go a bit easy on the devs but seriously, they need to step it up if they want to stay relevant now.

Even The Outer Worlds had that, Obsidian's own game. It's not that they need to step it up it's that they ACTIVELY stepped it down.

[Moon Rabbit]

Originally posted by Pinhead Larry:

Originally posted by ShiggitySean:

While i disagree with basically everything here, you're free to your opinion. But theres some things that are just wrong. Almost every dialogue has speech checks, idk if you've noticed but thats those options with the stats next to them. Kinda hard to miss. And i'm not sure why there'd be an option for crime, stealing, or random murder in the town because, aside from the fact that you're sent as the direct envoy of the EMPEROR OF AEDYRA, the whole first part is about tensions in town, game would end if you started indiscriminately killing citizens lmao.

And the last one, while i suppose still an opinion, its weird that you have Fallout NV showcased, so i assume you like it, but you have an issue with the emotes as dialogue choices?? That's something that occurs a lot in FNV, and is arguably some of the most iconic dialogue moments.

Baldurs Gate 3 lets you kill EVERY SINGLE NPC AND COMPANION and it still accounts for different paths that let you beat the game.

We live in a post BG3 world now, and that's where the bar for an RPG is set.

Granted, this game was in development before BG3 released so we can go a bit easy on the devs but seriously, they need to step it up if they want to stay relevant now.

Even Larian has stated they won't be making a similar game soon.

[Johnny]

Originally posted by ShiggitySean:

While i disagree with basically everything here, you're free to your opinion. But theres some things that are just wrong. Almost every dialogue has speech checks, idk if you've noticed but thats those options with the stats next to them. Kinda hard to miss. And i'm not sure why there'd be an option for crime, stealing, or random murder in the town because, aside from the fact that you're sent as the direct envoy of the EMPEROR OF AEDYRA, the whole first part is about tensions in town, game would end if you started indiscriminately killing citizens lmao.

And the last one, while i suppose still an opinion, its weird that you have Fallout NV showcased, so i assume you like it, but you have an issue with the emotes as dialogue choices?? That's something that occurs a lot in FNV, and is arguably some of the most iconic dialogue moments.

I don't have an issue with emotes as dialogue choices I have an issue when they're immensely cringe and one of 3 bad options

[Drake Ravenwolf]

An apparently no romance either :(
Are we sure this is an RPG?

[donut32]

Originally posted by Drake Ravenwolf:

An apparently no romance either :(
Are we sure this is an RPG?

its not

just another action game with skill points

[DrZann]

Originally posted by Boltergeist:

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the very first thing is already a lie

Dialogue is full of skill checks

Yeah, not a fan of Charisma. Dialogue checks should be based on skills and not a dump stat.

[Johnny]

Originally posted by Drake Ravenwolf:

An apparently no romance either :(
Are we sure this is an RPG?

I mean technically yes, just the most bear minimum amount it could possibly be.

[Johnny]

Originally posted by ShiggitySean:

Originally posted by Sugram22:

its part of what makes RPG a RPG, so far all games like that had option to steal and murder and option to get fined or thrown in jail if caught, u can be evil envoy to just like in some games u can be evil hero, like saving the world but being evil

Not every RPG is completely open ended character wise, if it makes no sense narratively, i can see why they'd make the choice to not allow certain things. And in my opinion, thats how it is here, at least with the stuff i was arguing about.

But we got literally nothing in return for that decision to cut half a million things. The game is just more empty than competitors and hiding behind flimsy excuses to cut features.

[Johnny]

Originally posted by deepcapture:

Originally posted by Johnny:

-Any kind of internal logic at all: A friend starts a bar fight? Do you knock the people you're fighting unconscious? No. You incinerate them in front of everyone over a small verbal disagreement to not even the slightest reaction. "We're the good guys folks." The game is chalk full of these kinds of moments.

Play along with the guy and the thug ends up with a stomach ache and nothing more. If you didn't realise you had choices there, it's your fault.

Misses the point; the game does not care whatsoever if I take the "bad" choice. Nobody reacts to blatant murder at all.

[FordGTGuy]

There are skill-based speech checks from the first conversation in the game.

Why are you lying OP?

[Johnny]

Originally posted by FordGTGuy:

There are skill-based speech checks from the first conversation in the game.

Why are you lying OP?

What you are referring to is a skill-check what I was referring to is a SPEECH skill to be checked against. Make sense? You can't spec into diplomacy and there's no progression in how far you can manipulate a situation in dialogue because there's no charisma, beguiling, or speech skill. Even Starfield's dialogue was more interactive, in this is game it's either super artificial or not present.

[Videogame Jukebox]

You are obviously obsessed with the game still or you wouldnt be here.

[Johnny]

Originally posted by Moon Rabbit:

Originally posted by Pinhead Larry:

Baldurs Gate 3 lets you kill EVERY SINGLE NPC AND COMPANION and it still accounts for different paths that let you beat the game.

We live in a post BG3 world now, and that's where the bar for an RPG is set.

Granted, this game was in development before BG3 released so we can go a bit easy on the devs but seriously, they need to step it up if they want to stay relevant now.

Even Larian has stated they won't be making a similar game soon.

To reiterate: killing every NPC and having the game adapt has been in multiple Obsidian games, so have crime systems. They already did this yet avowed is a step down from the outer worlds which was dubiously worth $60 let alone a game with less features for $70.

[Johnny]

Originally posted by Videogame Jukebox:

You are obviously obsessed with the game still or you wouldnt be here.

I'm trying to set the record straight and vent my immense frustration with the devs. I don't plan to touch it again.

[Marik]

Originally posted by Videogame Jukebox:

You are obviously obsessed with the game still or you wouldnt be here.

Honestly, it's rough to consider yourself a fan of a studio, only for them to publish something mediocre. It makes one still talk about and think about the game, at least for a while.